Dean Pritchard, Winnipeg Sun

Kevin Kirton apologized for punching a high-risk sex offender in the head, but he didn’t sound like he was losing any sleep over it.

Kirton, a one-time drug dealer and no stranger to the justice system himself, pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of assault and was sentenced to two years probation.

Court heard the victim had been the subject of a community alert when Kirton spotted him having a smoke outside a Main Street halfway house on July 7, 2011. Kirton — a father of five — walked up to the man, punched him five times in the head and warned him to stay away from kids.

“I understand what I did was wrong and I have no excuse,” said Kirton, 38. “But as a father and reading this stuff in the paper — and I don’t live in normal society — I just felt I should do something society would like to do but they don’t have the balls to do themselves.

“He was just sitting there, I just got hot and did what I did,” he said.